Warning: This review contains full spoilers for Lanterns Season 1, Episode 2!
Lanterns got a lot of things right in its pilot episode, but above all, the series benefited from the compelling chemistry between Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart. These two can barely tolerate one another at the best of times, and it makes for a hell of a lot of fun. But what happens when the follow-up episode splits this Dynamic Duo up for the majority of its runtime? As it turns out, these two characters are just as fascinating apart as they are together.
Episode 2 features some terrific Hal/John scenes as bookends, but for the most part, the emphasis is on the two men as solo players. While John carries out a glorified fetch quest for his grouchy mentor, Hal sets about digging deeper into the mysteries of Rushville, Nebraska. Needless to say, both men wind up discovering far more than they bargained for in the end.
Chandler continues to be pitch-perfect as this extremely onerous take on the iconic DC hero, but anyone this prickly really needs someone to serve as his foil. Luckily, Sheriff Kerry (Kelly Macdonald) is able to slot into that role nicely. Her acerbic banter with Hal is every bit as entertaining as the core Hal/John rivalry. This episode also allows us to sympathize with both sides of that dynamic. We can certainly feel Kerry’s frustration as she deals with Hal’s nonsense (including pulling him over with a car full of lukewarm corpses). At the same time, Hal proves that he’s once again right to be suspicious that strange things are afoot in this sleepy town. His gut truly doesn’t lie.
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